Grassroots Economic Organizing - Eastern Europehttp://www.geonewsletter.org/taxonomy/term/47
enMaking, Adapting, Sharinghttp://www.geonewsletter.org/story/making-adapting-sharing
<div class="field field-name-field-subtitle field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Fabricating Open-Source Agricultural Tools</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Morgan Meyer</div><div class="field-item odd">Alekos Pantazis</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><em><strong>cross-posted from the <a href="https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/making-adapting-sharing-fabricating-open-source-agricultural-tools/2018/07/06" target="_blank">P2P Foundation</a></strong></em></p><p>This is a story about people who build their own machines. It’s a story about people who, due to necessity and/or conscious choice, do not buy commercial equipment to work their lands or animals, but who invent, create and adapt machines to their specific needs: for harvesting legumes, for hammering poles, for hitching tools onto tractors.</p><p>The machines are just one part of our story, and this article will talk about encounters between people, tools and knowledge and it will take us to various places: Paris and Renage in France, Pyrgos and Kalentzi in Greece, and Tallinn in Estonia.</p><p>Let us begin our journey in Greece. In Pyrgos (southern Crete), there is a small group of people called <a href="https://melitakes.gr/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Melitakes</a> (the Cretan word for ants) interested in seed sovereignty and agroecology. It is a group that cares about organic farming and that tries to form a small cooperative. One of the things the group does is to plant legumes in between olive-trees or grapes. While olive trees are abundant in Greece, the land in between individual trees is usually not cultivated due to the distance necessary to avoid shading and foster the growth of the trees. So the idea was quite simple: use the unused land. However, the members of the group soon faced a specific problem: it’s hard to harvest legumes by hand and there are no available tools to do this arduous job in a narrow line between olive trees. On the market, there are only big tractor accessories, suitable for such a job, and only for large crops. That is why the group sought the help of a friend in a nearby village, a machinist, to help them out. He liked the idea. He saw it as a challenge and started to develop a tool (see picture 1). At that time, there were no concrete ideas or talks of ‘open sourcing’ the tool and of ‘do-it-yourself’ (DIY) practices. The situation was rather a pragmatic one: <em>‘there is a need for a machine that does not exist in commerce, we need a person to build it… and that’s what we did, supporting that person as much as we could, during the process’</em>.</p><p><img alt="" class="image-inline caption" src="/sites/default/files/styles/inline/public/diy_legume_harvesting_machine.jpg?itok=7XRGTqAC" style="width: 400px; height: 300px; float: right;" title="DIY legumes harvesting machine by Nikos Stefanakis and the Melitakes group. Source: Alekos Pantazis." />Several weeks later, the two authors of this article met in Paris: Alekos, who knew about his compatriots who built the legume-harvesting machine met Morgan, who knew about <a href="https://www.latelierpaysan.org/English" rel="noopener" target="_blank">l’Atelier Paysan</a>, a French cooperative specialized in the auto-construction of agricultural equipment, based in Renage. Alekos explained his plans: carrying out his PhD at Tallinn University of Technology on convivial technologies, getting to know l’Atelier Paysan, and ‘implementing’ some ideas in Greece through creating a makerspace for building agricultural tools within the framework of an EU funded programme called Phygital. Morgan explained the trajectory of his research on/with l’Atelier Paysan: his involvement in a collaborative project on user innovation since 2015 and his analysis of l’Atelier Paysan through looking at the politics and materialities of open source technologies in agriculture. After their discussion about theoretical approaches, methods, concepts and fieldwork, it was time for Alekos to meet l’Atelier Paysan ‘on the ground’ by participating in a 5-day workshop to build two tools for organic grape crops.</p><p>Alekos gained several kinds of knowledge via the workshop. Practical knowledge on working with metals, cutting, and welding. He also gained theoretical knowledge from l’Atelier Paysan: its organizational structure, the problems faced (and how they are solved), the financial setup and how to run workshops (see picture 2).</p><p><img alt="" class="image-inline caption" src="/sites/default/files/styles/inline/public/bike-barrow-construction.jpg?itok=N3-rlSSG" style="width: 400px; height: 266px; float: left;" title="Construction of the charimaraîch (a wheelbarrow/wagon adapted for market gardening). Source: l’Atelier Paysan" />L’Atelier Paysan is one of the few collectives specialized in such activities (other notable collectives being <a href="http://farmhack.org/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Farmhack</a> and <a href="https://www.opensourceecology.org/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Open Source Ecology</a>). L’Atelier Paysan has developed a range of practices and tools for ‘liberating’ agricultural tools: a website, workshops, a book, video tutorials, and open-source plans. In their recent <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/tc/8511" rel="noopener" target="_blank">article</a>, Chance and Meyer (2017) have analyzed l’Atelier Paysan by retracing their history and form of organization, studying how they enact the principles of open source in agriculture, and by describing their tools within their economic and political context.</p><p>When Alekos got back in Greece, he visited the Melitakes group again. He explained how l’Atelier Paysan works – its practices, philosophies, and ethics – and the various tools that have been designed and built. While thinking about the future development of Melitakes’ tool and its possible diffusion through some of the standards developed by l’Atelier Paysan, the collective faced a new problem: none of them was a mechanical engineer. None of them thus could draw the design of the components of the legume harvesting tool in situ. Yet this was a crucial step for digitizing the design and making it accessible online. So they sought the help of architects for how to best illustrate each part of the machine. Subsequently, they dismantled the tool, took photos of each component (more than 300 photos in total) in the correct angle (90 degrees) and with a tape measure visible on each photo. They also used big pieces of paper to trace some complicated parts (see picture 3). And they started looking for persons who, based on the pictures and imprints, would be able to (digitally) draw the mechanical design of the tool.</p><p>The plan, at the moment of writing this article, is to draw the plans of the tool, open source them by publishing them on the Internet under a Creative Commons type of license and then organize workshops to teach people to build it. So while the full story about the legume-harvesting tool has yet to be written, some features can already be told: a practical problem has been translated into a technical tool; this tool has been disassembled and photographed in order to make it ‘drawable’ and thus available via Internet. The hope, for the future, is that many more people, in many more places, will be able to build this tool, further improve it and share the improved design with the global community. But alongside the tool, something else will travel and be reinforced: the principles of agroecology and the practices of open source.</p><p><img alt="" class="image-inline caption" src="/sites/default/files/styles/inline/public/making_parts.jpg?itok=7UE1pIbO" style="width: 400px; height: 300px; float: right;" title="Imprinting of some complicated parts from the DIY legumes harvesting machine by Nikos Stefanakis and the Melitakes group. Source: Alekos Pantazis." />Our second story begins in a village called Kalentzi in Northern Tzoumerka region, Greece. The local community of farmers (called <a href="https://typos-i.gr/article/tzoumakers-kai-sth-sfragida" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Tzoumakers</a>) had another practical problem: finding an appropriate tool for hammering fencing-poles into the ground. Several tools have been used for this task for ages. But not without its difficulties and dangers: there are farmers who climb ladders and hammer the poles, and others who climb on barrels to do the job. But the combined efforts of hammering the poles into the ground and, at the same time, maintaining one’s balance on the ladder/barrel proves difficult – plus, you need two people to do the job. That is why several local farmers and makers got together, tried to find a solution and set up a plan to build a tool that can do the job without the need for acrobatic moves by making it possible for one person to hammer the poles while standing firmly on the ground (see picture 4).</p><p>The next phase, after the current prototyping of the tool, will be the design of a booklet that will include a detailed presentation, an explanation of the usefulness of the tool, a list of all the equipment and material needed, instructions for building the tool (and the risks thereof), drawings and pictures.</p><p><img alt="" class="image-inline caption" src="/sites/default/files/styles/inline/public/post_pounder.png?itok=3TbJBHlu" style="width: 283px; height: 472px; float: left;" title="Testing the newly constructed tool for hammering fencing-poles from the Tzoumakers group. Source: Alekos Pantazis." />It is time, now, to move back to France and give more details about l’Atelier Paysan. The first tool construction workshops took place in 2009 by a group of innovative organic farmers that was eventually formalized and structured into the cooperative l’Atelier Paysan in 2014. At that time, l’Atelier Paysan had already begun situating its practices theoretically, by mobilizing various vocabularies and concepts (agroecology, open source, social/circular economy, common good, appropriate technologies, etc.) as well as various authors and academics (André Gorz, Jean-Pierre Darré, etc.). Active collaboration with several academics in the social sciences was sought from 2015 onwards.</p><p>By that time, l’Atelier Paysan had already perfected its general methodology: doing its TRIPs (Tournées de Recensement d’Innovations Paysannes / Tours to Make an Inventory of Peasant Innovations); developing tools via testing, prototyping, upgrading and realizing workshops; and ‘liberating’ the collectively-validated tools via publishing detailed plans and tutorials on the Internet. One of its most prominent tools is the quick hitch triangle, which replaces the usual three-point linkage between a tractor and the tool to be fixed behind it. For the quick hitch triangle, l’Atelier Paysan has produced a 10-minute video, taken many pictures, issued a 47-page booklet, drawn several plans – all of which are freely available on its webpage (see picture 5).</p><p><img alt="" class="image-inline caption" src="/sites/default/files/styles/inline/public/collage-atelier-morgan-triangle.png?itok=K5eTjJl6" style="width: 400px; height: 368px; float: right;" title="Design, making and testing the quick hitch triangle from the l’Atelier Paysan. Source: l’Atelier Paysan." />It is important to stress a key feature: it is not l’Atelier Paysan that develops new tools from scratch ‘in house’; rather, they actively look out for individual farmers’ innovations. Only thereafter, through collective construction work, after testing the tool in the field and various processes of representation (plans, pictures, videos), are the tools released. Put differently, while user innovations are already there, ‘in the field’, the role of l’Atelier Paysan is to collect, formalize and disseminate these innovations.</p><p>In Greece, the situation is somewhat similar: local peasants already have several ideas in mind for tools that they would like to materialize. The idea is now to continue building tools with the local community, a practice that is usually experienced as positive and empowering. Ideas – like seeds – need fertile ground. Yet, a model like the one from l’Atelier Paysan, cannot simply be copy-pasted to another country and another context unmodified: a thorough understanding of both realities is needed. For example, in Greece, there are no public funding streams available for such endeavors, and the specific plants, soils, and morphologies of the country also call for specific, locally adapted tools. Apart from the political and natural peculiarities, socio-cultural characteristics also differ. For example, farmers’ skills are not the same in Greece than in France, and the collective memory and experience of building cooperatives in Greece is different. The conditions under which people can cooperate have their local ‘flavours’ rooted in habits, perceptions and social imaginaries. Therefore, l’Atelier Paysan’s model can act as an inspirational starting point but needs to be adjusted through continuous local experimentation.</p><p>The final leg of our trip brings us back to our respective academic homes (in Paris and Tallinn), to our keyboards to write this article, and to the theorizations that we are currently working on. Our stories have been about the work – and sometimes difficulties – that go into transporting ideas, machines, practices, and knowledge from one site to another. This is not a simple move, it is not just a matter of copy-pasting an idea, a practice or a technology from one place to another. Ideas, practices, and technologies are not immutable objects, but they are, in a sense, ‘quasi-objects’. In order to move ideas and technologies, they need to be transformed, disassembled and reassembled, translated, represented, adjusted. It is only via a variety of interlinked actions – imagining, testing, photographing, drawing, theorizing, sharing, rebuilding – that objects can travel and multiply. For these technological devices to be open, ‘convivial’ and low-tech, they need to be opened up in several ways. Our argument is that this opening up is both a technical practice and a social endeavor. Our stories are thus not only about the practices of open sourcing agricultural tools, but also about the (geo)politics, ethics, aesthetics and collective dimensions thereof.</p><p><em>(Note: the authors of the article would like to thank Luis Felipe Murillo, Evan Fisher, Chris Giotitsas and Vasilis Ntouros for their suggestions and comments. Alekos Pantazis acknowledges financial support from IUT (19-13) and B52 grants of the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research, COST Action CA16121 project and the Phygital project which is funded via the Transnational Cooperation Programme Interreg V-B Balkan – Mediterranean 2014-2020)</em></p><p><span style="font-size:22px;">Go to the <a href="http://www.geo.coop">GEO front page</a></span></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-publication-date field-type-date field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Publication Date:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single">Friday, July 6, 2018</span></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-1 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/110">Construction &amp; Repair</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/127">Land Tenure &amp; Stewardship</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/108">Manufacturing</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-2 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/47">Eastern Europe</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/12">Western Europe</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-7 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/151">Mutual-Aid &amp; Self-Help Groups</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-13 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/176">Networking &amp; Collaboration</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-10 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/248">cooperative commonwealth</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/251">place-based (local) economics</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/163">solidarity economy</a></div></div></div>Fri, 06 Jul 2018 16:32:40 +0000Josh Davis3903 at http://www.geonewsletter.orghttp://www.geonewsletter.org/story/making-adapting-sharing#commentsROH Cooperative Cafehttp://www.geonewsletter.org/story/roh-cooperative-cafe
<div class="field field-name-field-subtitle field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Solidarity Economy in the Czech Republic</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Ekumenická akademie Praha</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p> </p><p style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4G9j-ngJG90" width="640"></iframe></p><p>This video by Ekumenická akademie Praha presents the ROH cooperative café, non-smoking venue for discussions, cultural events or a gathering place along an attractive cycle-path at the foot of Vítkov hill at the Prague quarter of Žižkov. A collective project with the focus on the support of democratic form of entrepreneurship and local economy. Find out more on <a href="http://https://www.facebook.com/ROHkavarna" target="_blank">their Facebook page</a>.</p><p>More videos from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRy4hjD4SJg1Oo_OOapXhcg" target="_blank">SUSY - Sustainable and Solidarity Economy</a></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size:20px;">Go to the <a href="http://www.geo.coop">GEO front page</a></span></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-publication-date field-type-date field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Publication Date:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single">Friday, March 3, 2017</span></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-1 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/117">Community Development</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/128">Retail Trade</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-2 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/47">Eastern Europe</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-7 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/137">Worker Cooperatives</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-12 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/168">Economic Justice</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/172">Workplace Democracy</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-10 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/164">cooperative economy</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/251">place-based (local) economics</a></div></div></div>Fri, 03 Mar 2017 19:16:37 +0000Josh Davis3176 at http://www.geonewsletter.orghttp://www.geonewsletter.org/story/roh-cooperative-cafe#commentsWorking Together for a Cooperative Futurehttp://www.geonewsletter.org/story/working-together-cooperative-future
<div class="field field-name-field-subtitle field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">9 Co-ops in 9 Countries</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">CICOPA</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AQXdydXbQI4" width="640"></iframe></p><p>A video created in a collaborative manner that shares the experiences, challenges and motivations of young cooperators in 9 worker and social cooperatives from 9 countries worldwide.<br />CICOPA, the international organisation of Industrial, Artisanal and Service Producer’s Cooperatives and its regional organizations in Europe and Mercosur: CECOP-CICOPA Europe and CICOPA Mercosur have produced in a collaborative manner, with the help of Cooperar, the Cooperative confederation of the Argentinian Republic, this video.</p><p> </p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2tEbBK3bIJgg6NYN4gdH2A" target="_blank">Watch videos more from CICOPA</a></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size:20px;">Go to the <a href="http://www.geo.coop" target="_blank">GEO front page</a></span></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-publication-date field-type-date field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Publication Date:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single">Friday, July 1, 2016</span></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-2 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/47">Eastern Europe</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/9">United States</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/10">Latin America</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/11">Africa</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/12">Western Europe</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-7 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/146">Collectives</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/137">Worker Cooperatives</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-12 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/168">Economic Justice</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/169">Environmental Justice</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/172">Workplace Democracy</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-13 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/179">Solidarity Economy Organizing</a></div></div></div>Fri, 01 Jul 2016 16:03:45 +0000Josh Davis2818 at http://www.geonewsletter.orghttp://www.geonewsletter.org/story/working-together-cooperative-future#commentsPaving the Way to a Just Economyhttp://www.geonewsletter.org/story/paving-way-just-economy
<div class="field field-name-field-subtitle field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Thessaloniki Hosts 2nd Euromediterranean &quot;Workers&#039; Economy&quot; Meeting</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><em>[<strong>Editor's note:</strong> The <a href="http://euromedworkerseconomy.net/">2nd Euromediterranean "Workers' Economy" Meeting</a> is scheduled to take place October 28-30, 2016 in Thessaloniki, Greece. The organizers are now seeking proposals from participants and allies and have asked GEO to share their request with our readers. Inquiries and proposals can be sent to <a href="mailto:info@euromedworkerseconomy.net">info@euromedworkerseconomy.net</a>]</em></p><blockquote><p>While the phenomenon that primarily concerns the gathering is the occupation of the means of production and their management by the workers themselves, we also extend an invitation to a number of other experiences that fall within the “Workers’ Economy” and share organizational framework or political imperatives with the recuperated enterprises, such as self-managed work collectives. Likewise, we welcome the contribution of experiences of solidarity structures and alternative economy networks. We also extend an invitation to members of social and political organizations, collectives and trade unions that uphold workers’ and social control and self-management as a central political imperative and support the workers in their struggle, as well as to thinkers who study and promote these activities. Finally, we invite workers who have chosen other routes of defending their means of subsistence beyond self-management (such as co-management), for a level and honest discussion and exchange of experiences.</p></blockquote><p><span style="font-size:18px;"><a href="http://www.geo.coop/sites/default/files/call_for_participation_-_second_euromediterranean_workers_economy_meeting.pdf" target="_blank">[full screen]</a></span></p><p><iframe frameborder="0" height="800" scrolling="yes" src="http://www.geo.coop/sites/default/files/call_for_participation_-_second_euromediterranean_workers_economy_meeting.pdf" width="640"></iframe></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size:20px;">Go to the <a href="http://www.geo.coop">GEO front page</a></span></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-publication-date field-type-date field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Publication Date:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single">Wednesday, June 22, 2016</span></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-2 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/47">Eastern Europe</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/12">Western Europe</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-7 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/146">Collectives</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/137">Worker Cooperatives</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-12 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/168">Economic Justice</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/172">Workplace Democracy</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-13 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/181">Conferences, Events &amp; Gatherings</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-10 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/249">beyond capitalism</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/163">solidarity economy</a></div></div></div>Wed, 22 Jun 2016 16:17:29 +0000Josh Davis2801 at http://www.geonewsletter.orghttp://www.geonewsletter.org/story/paving-way-just-economy#commentsSocial Enterprise Supports Unions and Worker Co-ops Through Musichttp://www.geonewsletter.org/story/social-enterprise-supports-unions-and-worker-co-ops-through-music
<div class="field field-name-field-subtitle field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">dna merch is Crowdfunding a More Just Economy</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Josh Davis</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>After our article <span class="views-field views-field-title"><span class="field-content"><a href="http://www.geo.coop/story/crowdfunding-worker-co-ops">Crowdfunding Worker Co-ops: 15 Examples</a> came out, Anton from <strong>dna merch</strong> in Berlin, Germany contacted us via email about their current <a href="https://www.startnext.com/en/dnamerch" target="_blank">crowdfunding campaign</a> to "support workers in Croatia and South Asia with limited band t-shirts". Supporters purchase t-shirts from their favorite bands, a worker co-op makes the shirts, and a portion of the proceeds go to support union organizing efforts in South East Asia. Below is a short interview I conducted with Anton via email.</span></span></p><p>Q: <strong>Tell us a little bit about yourselves. Who are Doreen and Anton?</strong></p><p><img alt="" class="image-inline caption" src="/sites/default/files/styles/inline/public/doreen-n-anton_web.jpg?itok=78Wzctxp" style="width: 400px; height: 313px; float: right;" title="Doreen and Anton" />A: We are two longstanding friends from Berlin. I am an active rank and file union member and I play the drums in the ska and punk band Arthur &amp; the Spooners. Doreen is engaged in environmental youth education. With dna merch we are now bringing these areas together!</p><p>Q: <strong>Briefly describe your project. How exactly will selling band t-shirts help South East Asian workers in their efforts to unionize?</strong></p><p>A: We currently run a crowdfunding campaign together with 18 bands from 6 countries! Until the 3rd of January people can order special and exclusively for dna merch designed t-shirts from all these bands at <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.startnext.com/en/dnamerch" target="_blank">www.startnext.com/en/dnamerch</a>. With each t-shirt we sell one euro goes to the global workers network <a href="http://www.tie-germany.org/what_we_do/index.html" target="_blank">ExChains</a> with members both in garment factories in South Asia and in European retail shops. ExChains uses the money to support workers in India and other South Asian countries in building and growing independent and strong grassroots unions. In practice this means the supported unions will be able to increase their number of full-fime activists and organizers. </p><p>Btw, we not only sell band t-shirts in the campaign. We also sell our own line like e.g. the “NO BOSS AT ALL” or the “FUCK CHARITY LOVE SOLIDARITY” t-shirts.</p><p>Q: <strong>How did you decide that you wanted to help SEA workers to build strong trade unions? What led you to join in this struggle?</strong></p><p>A: We source our organic cotton fabric from India and when we thought of the best way to have a positive impact on the poor standards in the garment industry there, especially as a small social business start up, the idea popped up to cooperate with the ExChains <img alt="" class="image-inline caption" src="/sites/default/files/styles/inline/public/noboss_mockup_schwarz.jpg?itok=b47hT93a" style="width: 300px; height: 300px; float: left;" />network. I did a research study for a German trade union in India back in 2011. During the project I also learned about the ExChains network’s activities so I got in touch with them and they liked the idea of using the power of music to spread the word about their work. I think we need to recognize that social and ecological certificates are a good tool to create general awareness for the situation in the global garment industry among western customers but it’s even more important to make people understand where good working conditions usually really come from. Historically, higher standards have always been pushed through from below through worker self-empowerment. That’s why we believe that the best way to improve the garment workers’ situation in South Asia is when the workers themselves can negotiate collective agreements through the means of an independent and democratic union!</p><p>Q: <strong>Tell us a little bit about Humana Nova. How did you get in contact with them? What is their business all about?</strong></p><p>A: It was our goal to have our shirts produced by a worker cooperative but it took us quite some time to locate one. We first found one in Nicaragua and <img alt="" class="image-inline caption" src="/sites/default/files/styles/inline/public/humana_nova.jpg?itok=mxMAl203" style="width: 400px; height: 266px; float: right;" title="Humana Nova" />then another one in Thailand. However, we preferred Europe as a location for making it easier to visit. In the end we were introduced to Humana Nova by a Croatian trade unionist who is active in the international Clean Clothes Campaign. Humana Nova is situated in the Northwest of Croatia in the City of Čakovec and is part of the ACT Grupa, an autonomous local community centre. Humana Nova’s main areas are textile waste collection, redistribution and upcycling of used clothes and also production of new garments. Aside from Humana Nova ACT Grupa has also a public library, a publishing branch, a graphic design studio, bookkeeping agency specialised in working for social NGOs and an elderly care service.</p><p>Q: <strong>If this crowdfunding campaign in successful, what are your plans for the future? Where do you want DNA Merch to be in 5 years? 10 years?</strong></p><p>A: Our dream is to be able to live off dna merch. To achieve this we’ll focus more on expanding our B2B activities after the campaign has ended. We’ll offer our services not only to bands but also to screen print shops and social organisations such as environmental NGOs and trade unions. We already have produced 3.000 t-shirts for Germany’s biggest trade union IG Metall with the slogan “Refugees Welcome” and we hope that this kind of business will continue to grow. In 5 years we want to have established a running business with a number of regular customers/partners. dna merch stands for an authentic, traceable and solidary alternative to the conventional brands that are available for custom printed t-shirts. We will have started to expand our product line with other garments such as hoodies and tank tops. For Humana Nova we are the most important partner and have contributed to the stabilisation of their financial situation. In 10 years we want to be able to look at the global garment industry and see some real changes for the better like e.g. a much higher number of organized workers in South Asia!<br /><br />Thanks for the Interview and please support our crowdfunding campaign at <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.startnext.com/en/dnamerch" target="_blank">www.startnext.com/en/dnamerch</a></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size:20px;">Go to the <a href="http://www.geo.coop">GEO front page</a></span></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-citiations field-type-text-long field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Citations:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">When citing this article, please use the following format: Josh Davis (2015). Social Enterprise Supports Unions and Worker Co-ops Through Music. Grassroots Economic Organizing (GEO), http://www.geo.coop/story/social-enterprise-supports-unions-and-worker-co-ops-through-music</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-publication-date field-type-date field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Publication Date:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single">Wednesday, December 16, 2015</span></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-1 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/94">Arts &amp; Cultural Creation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-2 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/47">Eastern Europe</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/27">Asia (Southeast)</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/12">Western Europe</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-12 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/168">Economic Justice</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/170">Racial Justice</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/172">Workplace Democracy</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-13 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/267">Ethical Purchasing</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/176">Networking &amp; Collaboration</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/179">Solidarity Economy Organizing</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-10 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/164">cooperative economy</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/163">solidarity economy</a></div></div></div>Wed, 16 Dec 2015 16:36:37 +0000Josh Davis2466 at http://www.geonewsletter.orghttp://www.geonewsletter.org/story/social-enterprise-supports-unions-and-worker-co-ops-through-music#commentsAn Ethical Bank for Croatiahttp://www.geonewsletter.org/story/ethical-bank-croatia
<div class="field field-name-field-subtitle field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">A New Model of Banking for the Solidarity Economy</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>[<em><strong>Editor's note:</strong> these two documents from Croatia's <a href="http://ebanka.eu/faq.html" target="_blank">EBank</a> (<a href="https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&amp;hl=en&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;prev=_t&amp;rurl=translate.google.com&amp;sl=hr&amp;tl=en&amp;u=http://ebanka.eu/faq.html&amp;usg=ALkJrhiSh63MrIIco1UZ4J4GvtrhdLYNRA" target="_blank">English translation</a>) lay out an alternative type of financial institution for solidarity economy projects and enterprises. While utilizing an ownership structure similar to a credit union (all customers are owners with voting rights), Ebank will offer loans on very different terms than a standard bank or credit union. As the executive summary states:</em></p><blockquote><p><em>For business customers, EBank will provide the cheapest possible financing without any aim to make interest rate profits. Instead, EBank will participate in the profit of its financed projects, and reinvest this profit into the expansion and improvement of it services.</em></p></blockquote><p><em>EBank also looks to bring alternative economic tools and practices into their sevice mix: from alternative currencies and barter networks to crowdfunding and p2p lending. Embedded below is an executive summary and broad overview of the plan for the bank, as well as a selection of slides from an presentation made in October of 2014. EBank is set to launch in the second half of 2015.</em>]</p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size:18px;"><a href="http://www.geo.coop/sites/default/files/ebank_-_executive_summary_jan2014.pdf">[full screen]</a></span></p><p><iframe frameborder="0" height="1000" scrolling="yes" src="http://www.geo.coop/sites/default/files/ebank_-_executive_summary_jan2014.pdf" width="800"></iframe></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size:18px;"><a href="http://www.geo.coop/sites/default/files/ebank_presentation_additional_values.pdf">[full screen]</a></span></p><p><iframe frameborder="0" height="600" scrolling="yes" src="http://www.geo.coop/sites/default/files/ebank_presentation_additional_values.pdf" width="800"></iframe></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size:20px;">Go to the <a href="http://www.geo.coop">GEO front page</a></span></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-upload field-type-file field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Attached files:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="file"><img class="file-icon" alt="PDF icon" title="application/pdf" src="/modules/file/icons/application-pdf.png" /> <a href="http://www.geonewsletter.org/sites/default/files/ebank_-_executive_summary_jan2014.pdf" type="application/pdf; length=303269">ebank_-_executive_summary_jan2014.pdf</a></span></div><div class="field-item odd"><span class="file"><img class="file-icon" alt="PDF icon" title="application/pdf" src="/modules/file/icons/application-pdf.png" /> <a href="http://www.geonewsletter.org/sites/default/files/ebank_presentation_additional_values.pdf" type="application/pdf; length=423780">ebank_presentation_additional_values.pdf</a></span></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-1 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/117">Community Development</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/126">Financing &amp; Financial Services</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-2 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/47">Eastern Europe</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-7 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/149">Community Development Financial Institutions</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/150">Cooperative Financial Institutions</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/152">Credit Unions</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/183">Democratic Nonprofits</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-12 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/168">Economic Justice</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-13 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/177">Cross-Sector Alliances</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/259">Financing</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/179">Solidarity Economy Organizing</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/180">Strategies for Change</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-10 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/164">cooperative economy</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/163">solidarity economy</a></div></div></div>Wed, 04 Mar 2015 17:36:08 +0000Josh Davis1953 at http://www.geonewsletter.orghttp://www.geonewsletter.org/story/ethical-bank-croatia#commentsRadical Democracyhttp://www.geonewsletter.org/story/radical-democracy
<div class="field field-name-field-subtitle field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Reclaiming the Commons</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Carlos Delclós</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><img alt="" class="image-inline caption" src="/sites/default/files/styles/inline/public/peoples_assembly_in_parliment_square.jpg?itok=wx9Ew0sp" style="width: 400px; height: 267px; float: right;" title="People's Assembly in Parliament Square, London. Photo by Lee Nichols" /><em><strong>cross-posted from <a href="http://www.docnextnetwork.org/radical-democracy-reclaiming-commons/" target="_blank">Doc Next Network</a></strong></em></p><p>The world seems to be flooded by an unending wave of indignation and political unrest. The media sphere extends beyond the printed press and television news, into our personalised social networks, evoking a constant stream of images: fluctuating markets, stagnating economies, vibrant multitudes, insurgent violence. It is all too overwhelming to take in, as the simultaneity of events reduces voices to indistinguishable frequencies in a wall of noise. It’s as if anything can spark widespread revolt, like a park in Istanbul, a squat in Barcelona, or the price of a metro ticket in Rio de Janeiro.</p><p>The <em>Radical Democracy: Reclaiming the Commons</em> project tunes out the broader context of global unrest and tunes in to the local level at which the protests take place, so we may hear the common theme that binds them. That theme is citizens seeing their right to decide what kind of communities they want to live in denied by faceless processes far-removed from local reality, and certainly not accountable to it. As social ecologist Murray Bookchin once put it, “city space, with its human propinquity, distinctive neighbourhoods and humanly scaled politics—like rural space, with its closeness to nature, its high sense of mutual aid and its strong family relationships—is being absorbed by urbanisation, with its smothering traits of anonymity, homogenisation, and institutional gigantism.”</p><p>In the midst of the wildcat general strikes and decentralised occupations that defined May 1968 in France, the sociologist Henri Lefèbvre wrote that these types of protests were claiming peoples’ “right to the city”, which he defined as a demand for “a transformed and renewed access to urban life”.</p><p>In more recent years, David Harvey has revived the concept, writing that:</p><blockquote><p><em>The right to the city is far more than the individual liberty to access urban resources: it is a right to change ourselves by changing the city. It is, moreover, a common rather than an individual right, since this transformation inevitably depends upon the exercise of a collective power to reshape the processes of urbanisation.</em></p></blockquote><p>These concepts, together with the understanding that protest is fundamentally a form of caring for our communities, are what guide <em>Radical Democracy: Reclaiming the Commons</em>. With support from the Open Society Initiative for Europe and the European Cultural Foundation, the project highlights and empowers social agents who are proposing radical changes in the way society participates in common spaces. These social agents come from Poland, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom. The goal of <em>Radical Democracy: Reclaiming the Commons</em> is to increase the visibility of their local struggles and maximise their social impact using the networked medialabs of the Doc Next Network to produce socially engaged media with a lasting impact on public debates.</p><p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="450" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/117253215" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="800"></iframe></p><p><span style="font-size:20px;"><strong>Poland: Opening the heart of the city</strong></span></p><p>In the heart of Warsaw, tucked away in the lush green tangles where John Lennon Street meets Jazdów, lies a community of small rural houses. Established by the USSR in 1945 as a part of Finnish war reparations, they form an enticing island of tranquility in the capital’s urban landscape, and a living monument to the city’s 20th century history. Yet in recent years, city officials have decided that they would rather replace this area with the glass skyscrapers so typical of large city centres. In response to this, social activists responded by organising Otwarty Jazdów (Open Jazdów), a grassroots initiative that includes current and former Jazdów residents, community organizations, local activists and young politicians trying to stop the demolition of the houses by promoting Jazdow as a common space for the city’s inhabitants. It is a process that is similar to what activists are doing in the neglected, formerly industrial Ursus district. Starting in 2012, people in this district have been organising actions that criticise the urban decay it has been subjected to, informing the public of residents’ unmet needs and promoting the district’s history through the bottom-up creation of a Social Museum. As each of these campaigns uses the institutional and grassroots tools at their disposal in their disputes with city officials, <em>Radical Democracy: Reclaiming the Commons</em> will help amplify their message so that they can achieve their goals.</p><p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="450" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/117253216" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="800"></iframe></p><p><span style="font-size:20px;"><strong>Turkey: Making the city liveable</strong></span></p><p>The neoliberal city is the motor of Erdogan’s Turkey. Its booming economy is the result of a massive construction bubble fed by mega-projects operating on a city- and even country-wide scale, and the increasing surveillance and repression of dissent are constant reminders of the authoritarian impulse behind this urbanisation. It is a transformation that is having profoundly inegalitarian results, with middle-class flight into gated communities, deteriorating public facilities and increasing insecurity in the streets beyond the gates. In these circumstances, making the city liveable can be a form of dissent. Sokak Bizim (“Streets Belong to Us”) is an NGO focused on human-centred cities and streets in Istanbul, which they engage from the perspective of pedestrians, cyclists, children, elderly and disabled people. They are best known for their “Streets Belong to Us Once a Month” events, in which they transform lifeless spaces subsumed by the functionality of neoliberal urbanisation into festive ones, to promote community-building activities and create common spaces for citizens. <em>Radical Democracy: Reclaiming the Commons</em> intends to amplify Sokak Bizim’s message through the work of its networked medialabs and interaction with the other local hubs.</p><p> </p><p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="450" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/117259645" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="800"></iframe></p><p><span style="font-size:20px;"><strong>United Kingdom: Finding a home in the city</strong></span></p><p>In London, urbanisation is pricing citizens further and further away from the places they called home. Housing prices have soared recently by up to 20% from one year to another, yet nearly 12% of residents have too few rooms in their dwellings for the number of people living in them. As waiting lists for council housing grow endless, council housing itself is being privatised along with social housing. Though some policymakers and urbanists consider this to be just another part of a process of “urban regeneration”, many citizens are fed up with their powerlessness and the lack of rights for renters. In some cases, they have begun to organise and disobey. In Hackney, squatters occupied the Central Police Station citing that they simply could not find affordable housing. And many of the squatters who occupied Carpenters Estate in the fall of 2014 cited a lack of social housing as the motive behind their occupation. As London’s housing and renters’ rights movement progresses, <em>Radical Democracy: Reclaiming the Commons</em> seeks to both champion and connect London’s often disparate tenants organisations, and respond to the city’s increasingly polarised housing market.</p><p> </p><p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="450" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/117257771" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="800"></iframe></p><p><span style="font-size:20px;"><strong>Spain: Taking back the city</strong></span></p><p>For the last several years, Spain has been a laboratory for bottom-up organisation and empowerment. The 15M movement that began in 2011 not only managed to set the political agenda by framing the euro crisis and austerity as contrary to democratic principles, but also generate countless neighbourhood assemblies and amplify pre-existing assembly-based movements, such as the multicoloured mareas (tides) for social rights and the Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca (the PAH or Mortgage Victims’ Platform). However, the ability of these movements to gather support from the vast majority of the country’s population did not translate to much in the way of institutional change, despite their efforts to use all of the formal mechanisms at their disposal. As people grew increasingly frustrated with the indifference of the political class, many began to perceive an institutional glass ceiling. Thus, 2014 saw the emergence of new electoral experiments that not only spoke the language of the post-2011 social movements, but also contained some of their most familiar faces. This is especially true in the case of Guanyem (Catalan for “Let’s Win”) Barcelona and Ganemos (Spanish for “Let’s Win”) Madrid, municipal candidacies composed of prominent activists, community organisations and some political parties, which seek to activate citizen control in Spain’s two largest cities through a bottom-up politics of proximity and direct democratic practices. <em>Radical Democracy: Reclaiming the Commons</em> will document this process as experienced by the ordinary citizens it engages.</p><p>Over the coming months, <em>Radical Democracy: Reclaiming the Commons</em> will act as a microphone for the voices involved in all of these local struggles. By doing so, and by offering a common framework for interpreting what these apparently local struggles mean at a more global level, the project hopes to lower the volume on the noise that currently dominates the media sphere to offer the clarity needed to take steps towards making radical democracy a common reality.</p><p> </p><p><em>Shared under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/" target="_blank">CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license</a></em></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size:20px;">Go to the <a href="http://www.geo.coop">GEO front page</a></span></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-1 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/94">Arts &amp; Cultural Creation</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/117">Community Development</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/93">Housing</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/45">Public Policy &amp; Governance</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-2 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/49">Central Asia</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/47">Eastern Europe</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/12">Western Europe</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-7 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/146">Collectives</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/154">Commons</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/148">Community-Run Centers</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/151">Mutual-Aid &amp; Self-Help Groups</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-12 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/168">Economic Justice</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-13 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/257">Democratic Dialog &amp; Deliberation</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/179">Solidarity Economy Organizing</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-10 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/249">beyond capitalism</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/164">cooperative economy</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/165">participatory economics</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/163">solidarity economy</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/253">the commons</a></div></div></div>Wed, 18 Feb 2015 17:27:28 +0000Josh Davis1923 at http://www.geonewsletter.orghttp://www.geonewsletter.org/story/radical-democracy#commentsCooperatives as Governance Mechanismshttp://www.geonewsletter.org/story/cooperatives-governance-mechanisms
<div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Matthias Lehmann</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>[<em><strong>Editor's note:</strong> This article from the <a href="http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/ecfr" target="_blank">European Company and Financial Law Review</a> looks at why cooperatives are formed, considers their advantages and disadvantages compared to other forms of governance, and sets out a legal research agenda for determining how changes "in the institutional environment, i.e. the legal rules concerning the cooperative, impacts on the individual decision between entering into a contract, incorporating a company or creating a cooperative." While the author discounts the feasability of some cooperative sturctures, namely <a href="http://www.geo.coop/story/video-multi-stakeholder-co-ops" target="_blank">multi-stakeholder co-ops</a>, the article nonetheless presents an intersting and useful "outsider's perspective" on cooperatives and cooperative governance.</em>]</p><p><a href="http://www.geo.coop/sites/default/files/european_company_and_financial_law_review_volume_11_issue_1_2014_doi_10.15152fecfr-2014-0031_lehmann_matthias_-_cooperatives_as_governance_mechanisms.pdf" target="_blank">[full screen]</a></p><p><iframe frameborder="0" height="1000" scrolling="yes" src="http://www.geo.coop/sites/default/files/european_company_and_financial_law_review_volume_11_issue_1_2014_doi_10.15152fecfr-2014-0031_lehmann_matthias_-_cooperatives_as_governance_mechanisms.pdf" width="800"></iframe></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-upload field-type-file field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Attached files:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="file"><img class="file-icon" alt="PDF icon" title="application/pdf" src="/modules/file/icons/application-pdf.png" /> <a href="http://www.geonewsletter.org/sites/default/files/european_company_and_financial_law_review_volume_11_issue_1_2014_doi_10.15152fecfr-2014-0031_lehmann_matthias_-_cooperatives_as_governance_mechanisms.pdf" type="application/pdf; length=95260">european_company_and_financial_law_review_volume_11_issue_1_2014_doi_10.15152fecfr-2014-0031_lehmann_matthias_-_cooperatives_as_governance_mechanisms.pdf</a></span></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-1 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/45">Public Policy &amp; Governance</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-2 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/47">Eastern Europe</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/12">Western Europe</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-7 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/139">Producer Cooperatives</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/137">Worker Cooperatives</a></div></div></div>Mon, 20 Oct 2014 14:21:20 +0000Josh Davis1665 at http://www.geonewsletter.orghttp://www.geonewsletter.org/story/cooperatives-governance-mechanisms#commentsAnnouncing a Global Teach-Inhttp://www.geonewsletter.org/node/780
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><font size="2"><strong>Announcing a Global Teach-In</strong></font><br /><strong>Building a new economy and new wealth through democracy networks, green jobs, and an alternative financial system</strong><p>by Dr. Jonathan M. Feldman</p><p><em>(Editor's Note: We are posting this as a service to our readership. Due to lack of research time we are not able to endorse it.)</em></p><p> </p><p>The Global Teach-In will be a a participatory live broadcast happening on <strong>April 25, 2012 at 12:00PM EST, 18:00 CET</strong>. It will take place in multiple sites in the US and Europe (perhaps elsewhere).</p><p>The Teach-In will focus on <br />• explaining the crises<br />• showcasing alternative economic, political and media models<br />• promoting global links, and<br />• facilitating grassroots participation.</p><p>It will be a multi-hour broadcast in which experts, organizers, activists and local teach-ins will be linked through a livestream or similar on-line format. It will also try to get radio and television broadcasters to cover the event live.The first part of the teach-in will describe problems and the foundation for solutions to the triple crisis and describe the current moment of democratic change sweeping the globe.</p><p><br />The second part will showcase local and national solutions: ranging from local economic development initiatives to mass community mobilizations, to cases of alternative<br />budgeting and mass transit development. Green jobs initiatives will be described.</p><p>The Global Teach-In is designed to link a multiple number of cities in real time in support of a threefold agenda: <br />(a) address the economic, energy supply and ecological crisis, <br />(b) present global, national, and regional alternatives, and <br />(c) create a framework for follow up after the teach-in to exploit the power of local examples (cross learning) and the economies of scale in media, economic and political power represented by the Global Teach-In network.</p><p>More information at the web site <strong><a href="http://www.globalteachin.com/">www.globalteachin.com</a></strong> and at </p><p><strong><a href="http://www.social-europe.eu/2012/01/ecological-and-environmental-renewal-requires-economic-reconstruction/">http://www.social-europe.eu/2012/01/ecological-and-environmental-renewal-requires-economic-reconstruction/</a></strong><span style="color: #000000; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: #ffffff; display: inline ! important; float: none"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span> </p><p><br /><strong>Contact Information</strong></p><p>Dr. Feldman is</p><p>- Visiting Researcher, REMESO Institutet,Linköping University</p><p>- SMART Fellow, University of Michigan</p><p>- Associate Professor, Department of Economic History, Stockholm University</p><p><font color="#0000FF"><strong>globalteachin@gmail.com</strong> </font></p><p>S-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden<br />Phone: +46 707981634 or +468162843</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-1 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/126">Financing &amp; Financial Services</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/136">Ecological Processes</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-2 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/9">United States</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/47">Eastern Europe</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/12">Western Europe</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-13 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/176">Networking &amp; Collaboration</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/180">Strategies for Change</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/257">Democratic Dialog &amp; Deliberation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-10 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/247">high-road economic development</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/250">green economy</a></div></div></div>Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:10:13 +0000michaeljohnson780 at http://www.geonewsletter.orghttp://www.geonewsletter.org/node/780#commentsThe Seedhttp://www.geonewsletter.org/node/290
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>"The Seed" ("O Sporos" in greek) started in October of 2004, by a small group of politically active people in Athens, Greece, who were interested (but with limited knowledge) in the idea of ?fair trade? and felt solidarity with the Zapatista movement. Some people from the initial group already participated in an active solidarity effort (the School for Chiapas campaign).</p><p>While The Seed?s main activity, both economically and politically, remains the distribution of Zapatista coffee, it is not only a Zapatista solidarity project. Taking our strong solidarity with the Zapatista movement for granted, our general aim is to experiment with the practice of ?alternative and solidarity trade? as an active agent for broader social change. In this sense, we are searching for more producers and products to distribute, not only from other countries but Greece as well...</p><p><a href="http://sporos.org/en"><strong>Read more here...</strong></a> </p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-1 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/134">Trade &amp; Exchange</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-2 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/47">Eastern Europe</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-7 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/137">Worker Cooperatives</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/146">Collectives</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-13 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/176">Networking &amp; Collaboration</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/177">Cross-Sector Alliances</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/178">Linking Opposition &amp; Alternatives</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/179">Solidarity Economy Organizing</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/267">Ethical Purchasing</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-10 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/163">solidarity economy</a></div></div></div>Wed, 02 Apr 2008 13:37:01 +0000Ethan290 at http://www.geonewsletter.orghttp://www.geonewsletter.org/node/290#comments